INNER TEMPLE THE GREATEST KNIGHT
As a peacekeeping settlement, its prospects were
negligible. It was no more destined for success than the
Munich Agreement of 1938 which was supposed to bring
“peace in our time”. Like hundreds of charters before it, it
was destined for oblivion. Do we remember the charter of
Henry I? Do we remember the charter of King Stephen?
What is more, within a few weeks it was declared null and
void by Pope Innocent III, who, King of England or not, had
been acknowledged by John as his feudal lord. (Can I be
naughty, and wonder what the Euro-sceptics would have
made of that?) Pope Innocent abolished the charter itself.
All the obligations and safeguards contained in it were
declared invalid for all future times. The rebel barons were
excommunicated, a condition which our secular age cannot
begin to comprehend, but which would have penetrated
even the thickest of baron’s skulls as a lock on the door to
eternal salvation. King John had not the slightest intention
of abiding by any of it. The Pope killed it off. That was
meant to be that.
And yet this document, or, more accurately, the ideas
symbolised by this document, have become deep-rooted in
our way of life. They have travelled to what in 1215 were
unknown worlds. They have had a direct influence, and
continue to resonate in countries far, far away from these
shores. The United States of America and Canada, Australia
and New Zealand were undiscovered lands, but Magna Carta
is a document which is common to them and it is common
to us. Through it, the common law has penetrated the
world. The ideas derived from it have underpinned all the
great declarations of human rights. It is a universal document,
continuing to have a universal impact.
There are many myths about Magna Carta. Magna Carta
did not give us the right to trial by jury, but in the concept of
trial by one’s peers, one’s equals, it provided the foundation
for trial by jury. Magna Carta did not offer statements
about personal liberty or fair trials, but in the promise that
justice would not be delayed or denied, it underpinned the
right of the individual not to be kept in custody indefinitely
without trial, and carried the consequence that a hearing
or trial would always be required. Magna Carta did not
create parliamentary sovereignty, but it underlined that
the subject’s allegiance did not constitute an absolute and
unconditional obedience to the king. And this implied that
the king himself was subject to the law, and that if he failed
to abide by that understanding, he was not entitled to claim
an obligation of loyalty. Magna Carta was the banner with
which the divine right of kings was contested in 17th Century
England, when the foundations for our democracy were laid.
The Pilgrim Fathers took it with them to the new colony in
North America. This was the banner carried into battle by
the then colonists in what was to become the United States
of America, protesting in the 18th Century when Parliament
sought to impose taxation without representation. On these
foundations that great democracy was built.
To this day, all our rulers are subject to the law: presidents
and prime ministers, whoever we are, we all are. What has
all that to do with the Temple Church? The short answer is
that many of the key moments in the two years leading up to
the sealing of the Charter took place here, here in what was
then a very new building, consecrated in 1185. In 1213, the
king had two London headquarters: to the east, the Tower,
and to the west, the Temple. It was from here that in 1213 he
went to the old St Paul’s Cathedral to confirm that the Pope
was his feudal lord. It was from here in November 1214 that
he guaranteed the freedom of the English Church, which
became the very first clause in the Charter a few months later.
It was here in January 1215 that the barons met with
the king. Please try and imagine it. By now deadly, equally
treacherous enemies, tramping up and down, trying to do a
deal, each side trying to secure what it saw as its rights. And
the crisis of 7,000 French troops here in England, and the
City about to open its gates to them; it was indeed a time
of national emergency. Is it any wonder that the Master of
the Temple was rather frightened? But history was being
made in that tramping up and down, the march of history
not just of this country, but of the world. And from the
Temple in May, yet another Charter issued which guaranteed
the City of London the right freely to elect its own Lord
Mayor, a concession born out of the king’s weakness, and
offered unreservedly. And so on to Runnymede, and after
Runnymede and the nullification of the Charter, what then?
And, I am sorry to have taken so long to get here: one of
the ultimate saviours of the Great Charter is buried here.
“Magna Carta was the banner with which the divine
right of kings was contested in 17th Century England,
when the foundations for our democracy were laid.”
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